Catching Up- March 9th-March 13th

Tuesday, March 9th- I spent most of the day sleeping, reading and watching TV. I was really tired. In the afternoon, we went to town with some other women to go shopping. We got these pretty, hand-dyed saris. Mom also bought me a multicolored doupata. When we got back, there was a concert before dinner. It was really long. There was lots of singing, Indian dances, and music.

Wednesday, March 10th- Mom went to meetings and I hung out in the room. After lunch, we went on a tour. We got to drive around town, then see the City Palace. It was really beautiful. Mom has lots of pictures. Then we went to a puppet show. It was... interesting. The puppets were pretty.

After that, we went to a garden. It was really nice there. Me and lots of other kids got our pictures taken in old fashion Indian clothing. It was fun. At dinner, there was a dance party. It was so loud, but very fun. We said most of our goodbyes because we were on the early flight to Delhi the next morning.

Thursday, March 10th- Mom and I got up really early for our flight. We had a small breakfast in a special room they had set up for the Fulbrighters. A few other people were there too. After breakfast, we all met and took a bus to the airport. The flight was nice. Short. This time we flew through Jaipur. On the first flight, they served us muffins and croissants with filling. I had a muffin on the first one and a croissant on the second. When we landed, we had to wait to get our luggage. Then, we ran into Adam and got a ride with him to the Fulbright House, then the car took us to our hotel. It took a long time, but would have taken much longer if we had to get our own taxi. At the hotel, we relaxed and mom tried to use the computer to print out our tickets. We went shopping at Fab India and we both got two outfits. Around 6, we met Phyllis and went to dinner at the United Cafe. It was fun.

Friday, March 11th- Mom and I had to get up early to go to the airport. We ended up getting there really early so we bought food. The flight was really nice. I got a food box because it turned out they had paid extra for my ticket for me to get food. It was really yummy. When we landed, we had a car waiting to take us to our hotel. We saw lots and lots of cows on the way there. It was a nice hotel. We had an air-conditioned, a television, a fan, and a western bucket toilet. We both took naps, then I slept while mom went out. She bout Indian chips, cookies and cereal.

Saturday, March 12th- We had breakfast at the hotel. It was really good. We had eggs, toast, bananas, tea, and cereal. After a little while, we went out in search of a internet cafe and a copying place. We got all of moms papers copied, but couldn’t find an internet cafe. We went to an air-conditioned grocery store and had lunch. Then we bought groceries. Mom got me an ice cream, but it was really different than back home. They added chocolate chips, what we think was cookies and chocolate sauce. It was really tasty. For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant with Ed. It was fun.

Sunday, March 13th- The car was over an hour late coming to pick us up. We drove with mom's adviser, Sanchien, to Santiniketan. The car kept breaking down, so we stopped a lot. It took about 4 hours. When we got here, he showed us the University campus. Then, we went to the house. It's very nice. We have a western toilet, a shower, lots of fans, and a nice view of the garden. It's very big. The family who rents it to us is very nice. We got settled a little then had lunch. It was really good. It was a little weird being served though. We unpacked our bags, then went to the University to use the computer labs. Mom couldn't get her computer to connect, so she had to use the only working one. I read my book (again). We went back to the house really late. I showered while mom finished unpacking. Then we had dinner. I went to bed after.

-Celia Echt